Lack of blogging

Ah yes well, dear followers you may be frankly disappointed about the current radio silence on the blog.

The fact of the matter is I'm rather wonderfully and creatively busy in the new parish which is a lot of fun but means that there ain't much time for the blogosphere.

For those of you for whom this has left a painful hole in your lives, I can refer you to my twitter feed for edited highlights or- should you be passing Cheltenham fell free to pop into St Philip and St James, Leckhampton (off the Bath Road).

Weekdays (Mon, Wed & Thurs)
9am: Morning prayer
5pm: Evening prayer

Wednesday:
12 noon Holy Communion and meditation

Sunday:
8am Holy Communion (BCP)
10am Family Communion with young people's groups
6pm Evensong

See weekly notice sheet on website for details!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Risk, joy, hope and five Kings

A cold coming we had of it,
Just the worst time of the year for a journey,
and such a journey:
The ways deep and the weather sharp,
The very dead of winter.'
And the camels galled, sore-footed, refractory,
Lying down in the melting snow.
There were times we regretted----
The summer palaces on slopes, the terraces,
And the silken girls bringing sherbet.

Then the camel men cursing and grumbling
And running away, and wanting their liquor and women,
And the night-fires going out, and the lack of shelters,
And the cities hostile and the towns unfriendly
And the villages dirty and charging high prices:
A hard time we had of it.

At the end we preferred to travel all night,
Sleeping in snatches,
With the voices singing in our ears, saying
That this was all folly.

With these words TS Elliot began his account of the journey of the Magi- the wise men from the East.  Their journey to Bethlehem is the last act in our Christmas story and is the last time that we will visit the stable.

These Magi or astrologers find Jesus by interpreting Scripture and following a star.  Their journey from an unnamed eastern Kingdom fulfils the prophecy we hear in Isaiah that all of the nations, the peoples who have lived in darkness will come from far away to worship the one true God, offering gifts fit for a King.

These exotic individuals have fired the imagination of many great artists down the centuries.  And as the Church has reflected on this story, traditions have developed around it.  So the three gifts were carried by three individuals.  And these individuals were thought of as Kings, fulfilling the prophecies of Isaiah and the Psalms.  And as early as the year 500 there are traditions that the Kings were named Capsar, Melchior and Balthasar.  Eastern names that have their roots in Babylon, Persia and Arabia.

However many Magi there were and whatever their names, there are several things that Matthew makes clear about them.  Firstly these Magi are risk takers.  To travel across deserts and borders was a dangerous activity.  No airports and travel agents for them, they chose to go it alone risking robbery and exposure to the harsh desert climate.  The second thing we know about them is that they were hopeful.  You don’t decide on a whim or vague hunch to leave everything behind.  You need to have commitment and hope to sustain you through such a pilgrimage. And lastly, we know they were joyful.  For we read that they were filled with joy, and probably hugely relieved, when the star eventually stopped over Bethlehem.  

I think that such joyful, hopeful risk-takers, would make for good travelling companions.  But they are not the only Kings in our story, for there is also Herod. 

Herod the Great was a very different King.  He had been installed by the Rome as ‘King of the Jews’ to keep the peace in this troublesome corner of the Empire.  According to historians He was a paranoid and murderous tyrant who killed his wife and two of his children in order to secure his throne.  To display his power and wealth he built huge palaces and an even bigger Temple in Jerusalem. 

This is the King that Matthew tells us feared the birth of Christ, who quizzed the wise men and slaughtered the innocents.  Unlike the Magi, Herod took no risks.  Rather he enjoyed the luxuries of his Palaces and ruled by the exercise of cruel power.  He was everything the Magi were not.  Which is why he could never find his way to the stable.

But there is of course one more King in our story.  The King whom the Magi came to worship.  The true King of the Jews born into poverty, in a small provincial village.  In His Kingdom the hungry are fed, the stranger welcomed and the oppressed go free.  His is a Kingdom ruled by love and not by fear.

So maybe this morning we should be singing not of three Kings but of five?  One hiding in his palace a prisoner of his fears, three heading west following their dreams and one born in a stable to save the world.

Now I’m not very wise and I’m certainly no King but I am heading west- following a call.  And this morning as I set out on that journey and as you here look forward to all that 2012 will bring, I would like to commend to you the example of the Magi;

May you take risks and break rules.

May you travel hopefully and with joy.

May you be generous in the gifts which you offer.
So that, come the end of your days, 

you may find your way to Christ
To kneel with the wise men before the King of Kings. 

Amen.